The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

?php
>

Monday, August 29, 2016

Syrian Kurds clash with Turkish forces - debkaFile

by debkaFile

"Syrian Kurdish forces will lose US support if they don't retreat to
east bank of Euphrates,” the US vice president stated at a news
conference.

Syrian Kurdish militia commanders are flouting the ultimatum US Vice
President Joe Biden handed them Wednesday, Aug. 24 to retreat to east of
the Euphrates or else forfeit US support. Instead, debkafile’s military sources report, they decided to stand their ground and fight it out with the Turkish army.
The first clash occurred Thursday overnight, when Kurdish forces from
Manbij attacked the positions taken by Turkish tanks in Jarablus, hours
after Islamic State forces were put to flight from this border town.
The battles continued into Friday morning, Aug. 26.
The US ultimatum to the Kurds was the outcome of understandings US Vice
President Joe Biden reached with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan in
Ankara on Wednesday, hours after the Turkish army crossed into northern
Syria.
"Syrian Kurdish forces will lose US support if they don't retreat to
east bank of Euphrates,” the US vice president stated at a news
conference.
Yet Thursday night, Turkish officials made an effort to counteract the
impression that their military intervention in Syria was coordinated
with the United States. They announce that Russian chief of staff Gen.
Valery Gerasimov would be arriving in Ankara Friday for talks with his
Turkish counterpart, Gen. Hulusi Akar.
The US commander of American troops in Iraq and Syria, Lt. Gen. Stephen
Townsend, had meanwhile instructed all US Special Operations personnel
to withdraw from Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia units, and return to the N.
Syrian Rmeilan airfield near Hassaka. This is reported from debkafile military and intelligence sources.
The US general also stopped artillery ammo supplies to the Kurdish
militia and the transfer of field intelligence from the fighting in
areas newly occupied by the Turkish army.
These measures were temporary, the US officers informed Salih Muslim,
Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) leader, and would be lifted
after his YPG militia was instructed to pull back from northern Syria
and head east of the Euphrates.
Only last week, the Syrian Kurdish militia was riding high, covered in
praise for its feat in capturing Manbij with the assistance of US
Special Forces.
Their comedown after the US decided to jump aboard the Turkish invasion
would be complete, if they complied with the Biden ultimatum. They would
forfeit all their hard-won gains from years of combat against the
Islamic State, and have to forget their dream of a Kurdish state linking
their enclaves along the 900km Syrian-Turkish border.
A stream of information and misinformation is meanwhile muddying the
waters as the Kurds in Syria and Iraq absorb the shock of the American
turn against them.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara said Thursday that US
Secretary of State John Kerry had informed the Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu that the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militias had begun
their retreat to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

US sources qualified this claim, confirming only that a ‘main element’
of the Kurds has retreated, but not the entire force. The Kurds were
evidently in no hurry to take any marching orders either from Turkey or
the United States.
A short Kurdish statement claimed that their forces had indeed withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, but debkafile’s
military sources military sources say that a large body of Kurdish
fighters is still in place west of the river. Indeed our sources found
Kurdish PYG officers adamant in their determination to stay put and take
on the Turkish army.
After the Turkish invasion Wednesday, Kurdish leader Salih Muslim
declared, “Turkey will be defeated in Syria along with the Islamic
State.”
Kurdish units also took up positions on the roads leading to the US base
at Rmeilan, ready to enforce a blockade. A Kurdish food convoy due at
the base Thursday did not arrive.
In Iraq, there is word of a Kurdish Peshmerga mutiny against US
instructors at the bases where they are training for the offensive to
recapture Mosul from the ISIS.
However, the events of this week around northern Syria have dealt a major setback to the US-led war on ISIS.
Just a few days ago, the Americans were speaking highly of Kurds as the
sharpest sword in the coalition’s arsenal for vanquishing the jihadists.
Since Biden’s deal with Erdogan on Wednesday, Washington can forget
about the Syrian Kurdish PYG or the Iraqi Kurdish Pershmerga as
spearheads of the campaigns to liberate Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq
for ISIS.debkaFileSource: http://debka.com/article/25634/Syrian-Kurds-clash-with-Turkish-forces- Follow Middle East and Terrorism on TwitterCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.